Four people were killed, including the gunman, during a hostage standoff Saturday morning at a townhouse in Aurora, Colo., police said.

The incident, which lasted six hours, began with a report of shots being fired at around 3 a.m. When offers arrived on the scene a woman who had fled the house told them there was a man inside who had fired several shots, police said.

She said she had noticed three apparently lifeless bodies as she got out of the home.

Police and SWAT team members surrounded the house and hostage negotiators were able to get the suspect on the phone, but according to police the man "was behaving very irrationally throughout the incident and often hanging up on the negotiators."